During the Commonwealth Games in India, the work for bus shelters was given to a famous outdoor company from France. The Opposition parties had even raised quite a stink about it. The BJP politicians had even made allegations that a close relative of the Delhi chief minister has a stake in the company. The matter was anyway swept under the carpet and the French company got the work to put up 900 bus shelters in Delhi. This company gives the Delhi government Rs 8,000-9,000 per bus shelter and in return, gets anywhere between Rs 90,000-Rs 50 lakh from advertisers. During this election season, Delhi government is spending close to Rs four crore every month. A big portion of this spending goes to paying to these bus shelters. On the other hand, BJP, main Opposition party, is concentrating more on outdoor hoardings in the Centre and has already taken most of these hoardings on rent for its own advertisements.

Some of the Sangh leaders have a major role to play in BJP’s veteran leader Lal Krishna Advani’s U-turn regarding the party’s decision to nominate Modi as the prime minister’s post. Otherwise, Advani camp had made all preparations to stand up and revolt against Modi’s nomination. According to source, Advani camp had already made its feeling and intentions known to the Sangh, saying that the moment Modi will be announced as the prime ministerial candidate on September 13, those with Advani and the more than 100-odd officer holders at the Central and state unit who support him, along with Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan and Raman Singh will hand over their resignations. That means nothing short of an earthquake for the BJP. The minute the news got around, under the leadership of Bhaiyaji Joshi, prominent leaders of the Sangh had marathon meetings in Vrindavan for two days, details of which were kept confidential. Although the Sangh Chief Mohan Bhagwat was not at the meeting, but everyone from Krishna Gopal to Suresh Soni were present. The gist of the meetings was that the Sangh will take a tough stance on Advani matter. First attempts will be made to make him see the point of view, but if doesn’t come around, disciplinary action within the ambit of party’s constitution will be taken against him and his followers. Sangh’s one-liner from the meeting was, “Message to the masses that we are one.”

Nitin Gadkari played a crucial role in making the ambience right for Modi within the party and also to pacify those in the Advani camp. Until a few days ago, it was believed that Gadkari was not in favour of Modi as the party’s candidate for the prime minister’s post. But with a knack for being foresighted, Gadkari toed the Sangh line and started to speak in favour of Modi. Reliable sources have claimed that in the days to come, Gadkari may be rewarded for his efforts and may be appointed as the Campaign Committee chairman, the seat that has been left vacant by Modi.

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s close associate and BJP general secretary Amit Shah could soon be in trouble, just before the Assembly elections in five states in November. Highly placed sources told E Newspaper of India that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is all set to tighten the noose around Shah in the Sohrabuddin-Kausar Bi-Tulsiram Prajapati cases by demanding that the Supreme Court cancel his bail in the three cases.

Shah is out on bail in the Sohrabuddin encounter case and the murder of the gangster’s wife, Kausar Bi. When the Tulsiram Prajapati encounter case surfaced, Shah was already out on bail.

His counsels felt that he could be sent to jail for the same and hence they pleaded in the Supreme Court that the three cases be clubbed together as they were connected to each other.

This was done to avoid applying for a fresh bail in the Tulsiram Prajapati case. However, with the clubbing of the three cases, the highest sentence that the cases could attract is the death penalty. In such a scenario, the CBI can take this very plea for demanding that Shah’s bail be rejected.

Sources said that the CBI plans to put a fresh plea in the Supreme Court against Shah’s bail by the end of September. Coincidentally, the campaign for the Assembly polls would have started by then.

On its part, the Congress wants to target Modi’s close associates, rather than targeting the BJP’s prime ministerial aspirant himself. Targeting Shah is part of that strategy.

The Congress does not want to hit out at Modi directly as it is felt that Modi might use that to garner sympathy for himself. For instance, the “Maut Ka Saudagar (merchant of death)” remark against Modi in the 2007 Gujarat elections had only consolidated support for the Chief Minister.

The party does not want to repeat that mistake. Hence, the Congress is strategising to weaken Modi by attacking his associates. In a best case scenario, the Congress would like Shah to be rendered ineffective during the assembly and Lok Sabha election campaigns by ensuring that he is put in jail in the numerous cases
against him.

Despite a lot of opposition from the Advani camp, especially from Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan, but on the directions of Sangh, the BJP is all set to announce Narendra Modi as the party’s candidate for prime minister’s position. This can happen anytime before the pitrapaksha starts, that is, before September 19. Sangh’s intentions are to be give a clear message to those opposing Modi.

During the dinner hosted by BJP President Rajnath Singh for party Parliamentarians, BJP Parliamentarian from Bihar’s Darbhanga, Kirti Azad, came face-to-face with Narendra Modi. Azad embraced Modi without much ado, and said it aloud in his best oratory voice, “Kirti Azad’s salam to the country’s future prime minister!” As a habit, Modi corrected Azad, “Pranam or salam?” Promptly correcting himself, Kirti folded both his hands and said with as much devotion as he could muster, “Pranam!”.

BJP president Rajnath Singh is pushing for fielding his brother-in-law Arun Singh from the Mathura parliamentary seat in the Lok Sabha elections. BJP insiders say that Singh is pushing for his relative despite BJP poster boy Narendra Modi’s reservations on his candidature.
A chartered accountant by profession, Arun Singh is a national executive member of the party. His fortunes skyrocketed after Rajnath took over as BJP chief from Nitin Gadkari. He was not only made a member of the campaign committee led by Modi, but also appointed associate in-charge of Odisha after Rajnath’s return as BJP chief.
However, his dream of contesting the Lok Sabha election from Mathura could run into rough weather as there are many claimants for the seat. As Mathura is a seat dominated by the Jats and the Brahmins, Modi wants to field yesteryears’ Dream Girl Hema Malini (she is a Brahmin and her husband, actor Dharmendra a Jat). Whereas Arun Singh is a Thakur and his caste is not as dominant as the Brahmins and the Jats.
On the other hand, Srikant Sharma, who heads BJP’s media cell and is close to Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitley, is staking claim for the seat, armed with the argument that he hails from Mathura.
Sources say the RSS is rooting for Devendra Sharma, who had lost the 2012 Assembly election from the Mathura seat by a thin margin. Senior RSS leader Krishna Gopal is backing Devendra on the grounds that he is a local, a Brahmin and has a RSS background.

Something’s cooking between Om Prakash Chautala and the BJP. A few days ago, Chautala, who has been recuperating at Gurgaon’s Medanta Hospital, got a surprise phone call from BJP President Rajnath Singh. Rajnath expressed the desire that in the coming Lok Sabha elections, the BJP wants to include Chautala’s party in Haryana. Rajnath has given a formula to Chautala, that if the BJP, Chautala and Kuldeep collectively contest the elections, the Congress will vanish from the state. As a part of the formula, BJP and Chautala’s Indian National Lok Dal can contest four Lok Sabha seats each, with Kuldeep Bishnoi can contest two seats. Chautala wanted to know which of these arrangements will work for the Assembly elections, to which Rajnath indicated that in the oncoming Assembly elections, the BJP may consider the Indian National Lok Dal to be a big ally.

Swords between the CBI and the IB continue to remain drawn. Both agencies are unwilling to return them to their sheaths. Until now this tussle was visible only at the lower level of the organisations. At present, the IB has prepared dossiers against CBI officers with news against them. These are updated timely, and those are who have been pestered by the CBI are giving updates and information confidentially to the IB. Sources reveal that the IB is pretty upset about the fact that the officers at CBI, on the pretext of questioning IB’s Special Director Rajendra Kumar, took away the entire manual for encrypting code. That means, details of what information came from the Gujarat field, who were the informers, what was the compensation given to them in exchange for the information, all this information and more has been duly noted under CRPC Act 161. Which means anyone can see them now, and when asked by the court, there will be to be answers in reference to the same. Which means all the information by the secret service is now on the verge of going into public domain. Now another case about a DCP from the IB is coming to light. He was recently summoned by the police for questioning. All in all, the IB-CBI tussle is not going to end anytime soon.

This column was the first one to break the news that former Army Chief General V K Singh is mulling over the move to contest the Lok Sabha elections on a BJP ticket from the Rae Bareilly constituency against Sonia Gandhi. The general has had several rounds of meetings with Gadkari and Rajnath Singh about it. This Saturday, General Singh’s wife boarded a special flight to Lucknow and then took a helicopter to Rae Bareilly from there. The announced programme for Madam Singh’s presence was that she was to be felicitated by a Kshatriya organisation. But sources reveal that the real reason behind Madam Singh’s visit to Rae Bareilly was to do a recce about the political equation in the constituency. If the Singh family thinks the political tides are favourable to them in the Rae Bareilly constituency, only then will the General contest the elections from there. Otherwise he may demand of the BJP to have his wife contest the elections from there against Sonia.